“[It] has been an awesome year,” said Krystal Cruickshank, owner of Zum's Eatery. “I feel like we’ve rebounded, if you will, from the terrible ‘C’ word of COVID.”“Visitation was really strong this summer," said Dallas Meidinger, external relations manager with Parks Canada’s Waterton Lakes Field Unit.
“Waterton is that untouched gem,” he said. “That ‘thing’ that everyone thinks that, ‘Oh, my God, Banff is so busy,’ and everything else is so busy and Waterton is just this quiet, beautiful slice of heaven. So, it was nice to have them back.” “We’re kind of the like the farmers… we have a short season to make our money and we need everything to come together nicely – both tourists and weather,” Cruickshank said.
Following the Kenow Wildfire in 2017, Meidinger says ongoing restoration work continues to improve the visitor experience.